Emerald journal news

First-ever issue of New Library World digitised for Emerald Backfiles

View the first ever edition of New Library World (PDF format)

Emerald Group Publishing Limited is pleased to announce the digitisation of the full archive of its journal titles in the areas of business, management, library and information services, materials science, and engineering. Working with the British Library, more than 50,000 articles from over 120 journals have been processed into PDF format and made available electronically for the first time. Called Emerald Backfiles, the electronic archive is due for release in early 2008.

Emerald Group Publishing initiated the digitisation project to capture the earlier published articles as part of its 40th anniversary commemoration activities in 2007. The British Library, with its vast journal collections, was responsible for the digitisation programme as well as helping Emerald locate elusive paper copies that are not held at the BL.

Mat Pfleger, The British Library’s Head of Sales and Marketing – Priced Services, comments "Many of Emerald’s titles began as far back as the 1800s. Today, it is an expectation that researchers are able to access papers published in 1800s as readily as those published in 2007.  As the national library of the United Kingdom, and with a collection spanning over 250 years, the British Library holds on site over 90% of the project content and has additionally supported Emerald in sourcing those papers not held by the BL. The provision of a single sourcing and digitisation programme removes the usual logistical issues associated with such projects and means we are able to provide Emerald with a simple and secure digitisation solution".

"When complete, the Emerald Backfiles will provide business and management scholars and social historians electronic access to materials which hitherto now, only existed in print," said Emerald’s Director of Publishing, Rebecca Marsh. "Because the papers are being processed into PDF format, the contents of each article will be fully searchable, making Emerald Backfiles a robust resource for researchers."

Further information on Emerald Backfiles can be found on this website or via email to backfiles@emeraldinsight.com